Texas Civil War Museum

{{Short description|Museum in White settlement}}The Texas Civil War Museum, located in White Settlement, a suburb of Fort Worth, opened in 2006. It is the largest American Civil War museum west of the Mississippi River. The museum announced it will close on October 31, 2024.{{Cite news |last=Malcolm |first=Timothy |date=September 7, 2024 |title=Texas Civil War Museum to close after 17 years in White Settlement |url=https://www.chron.com/culture/article/texas-civil-war-museum-closed-19749514.php |work=Chron}}

It consists of three separate galleries. The first displays a Civil War militaria collection, emphasizing flags. The second displays a Victorian dress collection. The third is a Confederate collection from the Texas United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), which controls one of three seats on the museum's board. The museum's collection includes the former Texas Confederate Museum in Austin, which the UDC owned.{{cite news

|title=Trip to Texas Civil War Museum shows why Dallas should never send its Robert E. Lee statue there

|newspaper=Dallas News

|first=Robert

|last=Wilonsky

|date=April 24, 2018

|url=https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/04/24/trip-texas-civil-war-museum-shows-dallas-never-send-robert-e-lee-statue

|access-date=June 12, 2018

|archive-date=June 12, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612211338/https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/04/24/trip-texas-civil-war-museum-shows-dallas-never-send-robert-e-lee-statue

|url-status=live

}} The remainder was acquired by Ray Richey, an oil company executive who built the museum and is its president and curator.{{cite news

|title=Oilman Opens Massive Civil War Museum

|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28232082/

|first=Matt

|last=Curry

|newspaper=Victoria Advocate (Victoria, Texas)

|date=January 26, 2006

|page=19

|access-date=February 10, 2019

|archive-date=July 7, 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210707093645/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28232082/victoria-advocate/

|url-status=live

}} "Experts say [it] is the finest private collection in existence."{{cite news

|title=Prolific Fort Worth Civil War collector scoops up rare Robert E. Lee items

|first=Steve

|last=Campbell

|newspaper=Fort Worth Star-Telegram

|date=February 2, 2014

|url=https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article3844764.html

|access-date=February 7, 2019

|archive-date=February 9, 2019

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124402/https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article3844764.html

|url-status=live

}} Richey's collection was primarily militaria. Also on display are Victorian dresses collected by Judy Richey, curator of the dress collection.{{cite web

|title=About Us. Meet the staff

|date=10 April 2011

|publisher=Texas Civil War Museum

|accessdate=February 6, 2019

|url=https://www.chron.com/life/article/Civil-War-sesquicentennial-puts-focus-on-Fort-1688012.php

|archive-date=February 9, 2019

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209124103/https://www.chron.com/life/article/Civil-War-sesquicentennial-puts-focus-on-Fort-1688012.php

|url-status=live

}}

The museum has attracted criticism for being an advocate and apologist for the Confederacy. According to John Fullinwider, a Dallas educator and activist, the museum presents the Lost Cause of the Confederacy mythos of the American Civil War; the museum's movie, "Our Honor, Our Rights: Texas and Texans in the Civil War" is "romanticized", "a lovely bit of 'Lost Cause' propaganda". In it, the "sectional crisis" is presented as a contest over states' rights rather than slavery. The author of the text of the movie, McMurry University professor Donald S. Frazier, said that it needed to be updated because "the conversation has changed".{{cite news

|url=http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article209722614.html

|title=Dallas saw too much Rebel in Texas Civil War Museum

|first=Bud

|last=Kennedy

|newspaper=Fort Worth Star-Telegram

|date=April 24, 2018

|access-date=June 12, 2018

|archive-date=June 12, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612232535/http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article209722614.html

|url-status=live

}} The facility sometimes refers to the Civil War as the War Between the States, the name preferred by Confederate sympathizers.{{cite web

|title=Exhibits currently on display

|date=2013

|author=Texas Civil War Museum

|accessdate=June 11, 2018

|url=http://www.texascivilwarmuseum.com/visit-the-museum/exhibits-now-on-display/

|archive-date=May 19, 2018

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180519212117/http://www.texascivilwarmuseum.com/visit-the-museum/exhibits-now-on-display/

|url-status=live

}} The Museum's Web site links to book reviews signed by its "Resident Historian", "Johnny Reb".{{cite web

|title=Education

|accessdate=February 6, 2019

|url=http://www.texascivilwarmuseum.com/education/book-reviews/

|archive-date=February 7, 2019

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207165947/http://texascivilwarmuseum.com/education/book-reviews/

|url-status=live

}}{{cite web

|title=Resident Reviewer Johnny Reb Recommends

|url=http://storage.cloversites.com/texascivilwarmuseum/documents/Jo%20Shelbys%20Iron%20Brigade.pdf

|accessdate=February 6, 2019

|archive-date=February 9, 2019

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190209180143/http://storage.cloversites.com/texascivilwarmuseum/documents/Jo%20Shelbys%20Iron%20Brigade.pdf

|url-status=live

}}

Dallas, wishing to dispose of its Robert E. Lee statue, considered lending it to the museum, the only local institution willing to accept it. The city decided not to lend it because it would not be displayed in its proper context, according to the city.